Judge throws out Trump's $10 billion Wall Street Journal lawsuit over Epstein birthday letter for good
A Miami federal judge dismissed Trump's $10 billion defamation suit with prejudice, ruling he again failed to show actual malice. An appeal is still open.
At a glance
- US District Judge Darrin Gayles dismissed Donald Trump's $10 billion defamation suit against The Wall Street Journal and Rupert Murdoch with prejudice on Saturday, October 31, 2026.
- Trump cannot file another amended version in the district court, but he can appeal.
- The judge ruled, for the second time, that Trump had not plausibly alleged the paper acted with actual malice, the standard public figures must meet.
- The case concerned a 2025 article saying Trump sent Jeffrey Epstein a bawdy 50th birthday letter in 2003. Trump denies writing it.
- A spokesman for Trump's legal team said he will keep pressing the case.
A federal judge in Miami on Saturday threw out Donald Trump's $10 billion defamation lawsuit against The Wall Street Journal and Rupert Murdoch, this time with prejudice. That closes the case in the district court: Trump cannot file a third version there, though he can appeal.
"As with his first attempt, he has failed," US District Judge Darrin Gayles wrote in a 20-page ruling on October 31, 2026. "Grasping at straws, the Amended Complaint attempts to manufacture flaws with the investigation."
A spokesman for Trump's legal team said the president "will continue to press forward" and would keep holding to account "those who mislead the American People". The statement did not say in so many words that an appeal would be filed.
The two words that sank the case twice
Trump's problem was the same in April and in October: actual malice. Under long-standing US law, a public figure suing for defamation must show that a publisher knew a statement was false or acted with reckless disregard for the truth. Being wrong is not enough.
Judge Gayles found that Trump had "not plausibly alleged" this. His new complaint added details meant to fill that gap, including a claim that Murdoch told him "I will handle it" during a phone call about the planned article. It also attacked the way the story was investigated. The judge was not persuaded.
The ruling does not settle whether Trump wrote the letter. In April, Gayles said authorship was a question of fact that could not be decided at that stage. The suit failed on what Trump had to allege about the publisher's state of mind.
What the article said, and who was sued
The July 2025 article described an album compiled for Jeffrey Epstein's 50th birthday in 2003. It said the album included a bawdy letter bearing Trump's name, with typewritten text framed by a hand-drawn outline of a naked woman. Trump has always denied writing or drawing it, and he called the report fake when it appeared.
The defendants were Dow Jones, which publishes the paper; its parent, News Corp; owner Rupert Murdoch; News Corp chief executive Robert Thomson; and reporters Khadeeja Safdar and Joe Palazzolo.
How the case moved in 15 months
| Date | Step |
|---|---|
| July 2025 | Trump sues in federal court in Miami, seeking $10 billion |
| April 13, 2026 | Gayles dismisses the suit without prejudice and allows an amended version by April 27 |
| After April 2026 | Trump files an amended complaint with new claims, including the Murdoch phone call |
| October 31, 2026 | Gayles dismisses the amended complaint with prejudice |
Why this reaches beyond one newspaper
The case was one of several large suits Trump has brought against media organisations, and the actual malice standard is the main protection US publishers have against them. A second dismissal on that ground, with no further chance to amend, makes this a clear win for the defendants. The ruling comes just days before the US midterm elections, at a time when questions about Epstein still divide some of Trump's own supporters.
Epstein died in a New York jail in 2019 while facing sex trafficking charges. His associate Ghislaine Maxwell is serving a 20-year sentence for sex trafficking.
The appeal is the only road left
Any challenge would go to the US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit in Atlanta, which hears appeals from federal courts in Florida. Trump's lawyers now have to decide whether to file. Federal civil rules generally give a losing party 30 days from the final judgment to lodge a notice of appeal.
Questions people are asking
What does dismissed with prejudice mean in Trump's lawsuit?
It means Trump cannot refile an amended version of the same lawsuit in that court. He can still ask a federal appeals court to review the ruling.
Did the judge decide whether Trump wrote the Epstein letter?
No. In his April ruling Judge Gayles said authorship was a question of fact that could not be settled at that stage. The case failed because Trump did not plausibly allege actual malice.
